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Sioux Falls Trip

Today was my road trip to Sioux Falls with a friend. It was a lot of fun and it was also quite productive. The whole thing came together on short notice, I would say we discussed it about 3 weeks ago and confirmed plans to go the week after that which is a lot less time than it usually takes to plan a trip. That’s probably because it was just the two of us and we were not beholdened to anyone else’s time schedule or when they could get off of work.

We left at around 7 AM. Yet another advantage of fewer people. We were both ready earlier than we planned, so we left earlier. We got to Sioux Falls at about 9:30 and the first stop was to this place on East 10th so my friend could get his customary peanut butter smoothie.

Last Stop CD Shop is near there so we made that our next stop once it opened at 10 AM. I sold essentially the remainder of my DVD collection and some audiobooks that I had on CD…don’t need CDs with them all saved to my hard drive. Basically, now I have one major DVD box set left of ‘The Real Ghostbusters’ because I forgot to check to see if the discs were in it…and they were in fact, not. The guy working did want to buy it but I may decide to hold on to it. Since I don’t know when I’ll be going back, I have some time to think about it.

After that, we went to one of my favorite places in Sioux Falls. I didn’t know about this place for the longest time until my cousin introduced me to it a few years ago. Now, I can’t go to Sioux Falls without stopping at Poppy’s Popcorn Company.
I’m some of the best advertising that store has because of how many people back home I have mentioned it to and pretty much all of them have gone there and liked it. They have then told their friends and it has expanded from there. I am the patient zero of that place’s Huron business.
I picked up 4 popcorn balls because if there is a treat I love more than popcorn balls I have yet to discover it. I filled up my small tin (because I have a giant tin as well and thus must distinguish between the two) with some chocolate covered cherry popcorn which is my favorite.
I picked up another bag of chocolate covered cherry popcorn to bring back to my friend Scott. It was the least I could do because when I was sick the previous week, he bought me some medication.
I actually bumped into someone I know while I was there. I bumped in to my cousin Leah which kind of caught me off guard. I’m not used to encountering people I know when I am in Sioux Falls just for the afternoon.

The mall was our next stop. We stopped in at Hot Topic and at Gamestop but we just had a couple of things to investigate there. I like Hot Topic but didn’t buy anything, although some Star Wars stuff was tempting.
I stopped in at Pro Image and made my biggest purchase of the day. I bought a Derek Carr jersey because while I have a few Raiders jerseys, I have no jersey of anyone who is currently on the team. I wanted Carr, Amari Cooper, Kahlil Mack or Latavius Murray so I am happy. I’ll be wearing that jersey tomorrow when they play the Bears.

Then we went to Toys ‘R’ Us. I wanted to look at two things. I wanted to see their selection of Star Wars stuff and look at their WWE figures. I have a few WWE figures I bought last month and was interested in a few more. Alas, they had nothing I really wanted. However, my friend found some cool video game stuff that he wanted, think classic systems like Intellevision, Atari and Coleco Vision. My family had one of the latter when I was a kid.

We went to Wal-Mart next. Yes, there is a Wal-Mart in Huron but I still went to one in Sioux Falls. It was there that I actually found some of the wrestling figures I wanted so I bought them. I forgot to look for the Strawberry Sunkist I enjoy but that’s why you go back.

After that we went to a different Gamestop location because my friend was on a mission. He is looking for a Mario Amiibo. His mission was denied just as it was out at the mall but he did gather some valuable facts.

Then for our final stop in Sioux Falls, we had lunch at Sonic. Sonic is one of my favorite places to eat in Sioux Falls. When I go and stay with my cousin Shiloh, I have to eat at Sonic at least once.
There are a lot of places I like to frequent when I go to Sioux Falls, so when I’m only in town for a day it is hard to pick just one. Today it was Sonic, who knows what it will be next time?

It was about 2 PM at this point and we decided it was time to head home. It is a good thing we left when we did because another hour or so and I probably would have fallen asleep in the car. You know I’m tired when I can fall asleep in a vehicle, something that has never been easy for me to do, especially as I have gotten older.

It wasn’t the last leg of our journey, however. On our way back through Mitchell we stopped at yet another one of my favorite spots. We went to the Sweet Fix Candy and Pop Shop. I like to think that even though I can’t decide a lot in my personal life, when it comes to food I’m usually on the ball. Not so much when I go to this candy store. I want to buy so much each time. I actually spent about $17 there today. I got some candy cigarettes, laffy taffy, grape liquorice, a giant tootzie roll, and two glass bottles of soda. I got a bottle of Strawberry crush and a bottle of Shirley Temple Cherry Soda.
My friend somehow managed to spend almost twice as much as me. I don’t know everything he bought but I do know he bought a bottle of bacon flavored soda. I was fortunate enough to be able to sample this drink. I can’t say I’ve ever had liquid bacon before and so I don’t know if the soda was exactly what that would taste like but I did find the taste oddly familiar. I wouldn’t say it tasted like bacon at all but it did kind of taste like something I’ve had before though I can’t recall off hand what that might be. You’re probably wondering how this candy and popcorn is going to impact my diet. Shut up, that’s how.

We made it back at about a quarter to five and not a moment too soon. I was exhausted and went straight to bed. So that’s pretty much my trip.

I will say this. Whenever I go to Sioux Falls, I feel like it is calling me and saying this is where you should be. That’s kind of weird I know but I am very comfortable there for some reason. I can’t imagine moving to Sioux Falls any time soon because I would prefer to be closer than that as long as my dad is fighting cancer. Regardless, I felt that pull again today. I haven’t been to Sioux Falls since January. These days, I don’t feel the pull so much when I am in Huron but once I go back it is there almost instantaneously.

Maybe someday I’ll figure out all of the logistics and move. It isn’t on the horizon but the door remains open. That’s my story for the day and I’m sticking to it.

All in all, it was a good time. I think my friend and I are going to try and take a trip every other month or so. It might be Sioux Falls but we’ve got other places on our list that we would like to do the same thing. One of them is Aberdeen where I went to college and have only visited twice since that disasterous time in my life came to a close. We’ll see if we follow up on that or if it just becomes one of those things that we talk about but never do.